EtherLink III - Detecting lost interrupt with NW 3.12

Question: How do I detect a lost interrupt? I'm running NetWare 3.12 with the 3C579 in an IBM PC-Server 320 P90 and I get a "Lost Hardware Interrupt" message.

Answer: Turn off interrupt reporting. When the message buffer is filled, it brings down the server. If you turn off reporting, the message buffer doesn't fill and bring down the server.

Detecting a Lost Interrupt in NetWare 3.11
Date: April 13, 1992
Ask3Com Reference Number: 02360008
Copyright 3Com Corporation, 1992. All rights reserved.

NetWare 3.11's system reporting displays messages to the server console whenever the operating system detects that an event has taken place which needs to be tracked and reported for network analysis.

There are two types of interrupts that are reported in NetWare 3.11: spurious interrupts and lost interrupts. A spurious interrupt is an interrupt request from a hardware device that uses the interrupt assigned to another hardware device. A lost interrupt occurs when a hardware device or device driver issues an interrupt request to the CPU, then turns to another task before the CPU can respond to the request, hence losing the interrupt. These interrupts are not fatal, and they take place in other operating systems but are hidden or never reported.

A lost interrupt system message may appear at the server's console if your IBM PS/2 Model 80 workstation displays the message "Primary/or Secondary Controller Detected a Lost Interrupt" AND you are using an EtherLink/MC, Assy 4233-01/02/03 adapter, AND network traffic is very high.
To prevent more "lost interrupt" messages from being posted to the server console, upgrade the adapter to Assy 4233-08 or higher. Or, use the SET command [SET DISPLAY LOST/or SPURIOUS INTERRUPTS ALERTS=OFF] to turn off reporting. (Turning off the reporting also keeps the error log from needlessly filling up.) The lost or spurious interrupts may still occur, but they will not be reported.

Note: Normally, lost or spurious interrupts are not detrimental to the system. They usually occur when non-3Com adapters are used. However, it is not normal when five or more lost or spurious interrupts occur in a short time frame, such as five seconds.